9-1-1 Recap: The Hot Zone

I try not to think too much about politics when watching 9-1-1, both because this show is one of my few reprieves from ever-escalating real-life crises and because I don’t expect a show about first responders to necessarily align with my personal belief system. “Sick Day” certainly tested me, however — it’s basically impossible to watch a plotline about a potential lab leak and pandemic threat without feeling a trifle uncomfortable. I do not think 9-1-1 is endorsing any particular COVID origin theory, but the association is unpleasant. Do I feel great about how the researchers are depicted here? I do not! And yet, “Sick Day” is so thrilling that it won me over by the end. I’m not a perfect person.

9-1-1, on the other hand, may be a perfect show. Or not perfect — I was pretty mixed on the last episode — but it knows how to tell a great story. This one starts, like so many great stories, with a bus plowing into a bunch of cars. The 118 arrives on the scene and gets into rescue mode, with the whole thing playing out like an episode of Hot Shots. Most everyone gets out safely, but when Ravi evacuates a woman from her car, he neglects to spot the baby in the back seat. Thankfully, Bobby has enough of a death wish to run back and grab the baby, nearly dying in a massive explosion before triumphantly walking out of the smoke carrying the chillest infant I’ve ever seen. (See, just like Hot Shots.) I’ll be honest, the scene has very little bearing on the rest of the episode, except for some Ravi character development. At drinks with Buck — so glad they’re actual friends now — he says he’s so distressed over his mistake that he’s going to quit the 118. Buck has had enough friends quitting for one year, urging Ravi to get back on the firefighting horse. “You have to push the doubt away,” he notes, “because the second you let it in, it’s like a virus.”

Speaking of viruses, we now get down to business with a scene that escalates in a way that only 9-1-1 can. Scientists Allen and Roz are working in a very scary lab (you can tell by the PPE) with their colleague Moira, whom they hate. Moira has used her free time to speed up the incubation period of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) to 90 minutes, so that she can test an antidote on a lab rat. Roz and Allen are impressed to see that the antidote works instantly, but appropriately horrified. So is their supervisor, Dr. Francis Banting, who points out Moira has made an extremely dangerous pathogen way more dangerous. The thing is, Moira makes a valid point! Following the rules is slowing research down, and climate change is increasing the habitats where ticks who carry CCHF can live. (This is absolutely true and terrifying. Read this study if you don’t want to sleep tonight.) “If we do not move as fast as our climate is changing, we will be outrun,” she says, and I can at least take comfort knowing 9-1-1 falls on the “climate change is real” side of the aisle.

Unfortunately, Moira is also clearly insane. As soon as Banting fires her, she heads back to the lab and knocks Allen unconscious, stealing his key card so she can get in. We don’t see what she’s doing in there, but the next time we hear about SoCal Tech Biomedical Research Laboratory, Banting is placing a 911 call to report that the facility is on fire. As the 118 makes its way over, Maddie explains that the lab’s virology unit runs tier-four precautions for “lethal and exotic viruses,” which is alarming. There’s even scarier news awaiting the team as they arrive and Banting informs them that the fire is on the level where researchers are studying CCHF, a virus that Hen identifies as “Ebola’s nastier cousin.” It’s very contagious and very fatal, with people usually dying from uncontrollable bleeding. Again, I think I’d be happier not knowing about any of this.

Bobby is still way too casual about going down to the lab, even snagging Banting’s badge so the 118 can make it past all the security protocols. Once there, they find and extract Allen, who mentions Moira’s name and no additional context before passing out again. (Unhelpful!) Actual jump scare as Roz makes her presence known — she’s trapped in the cryo room behind a door that’s melted shut and has bulletproof glass. Buck and Chimney have to crawl through a vent to get to her, and while Chim references Die Hard, the whole thing is way more Alien to me. Once they get to Roz, she refuses to take off her suit (smart lady!), so they’re forced to disconnect her hose and have her hold her breath while they pull her through the vent and out to safety. At this point, it’s time to leave, especially after Bobby spots an isobutane fire. Ravi, however, is still scarred from almost letting that baby die earlier, and he’s determined to find and rescue Moira. Moira is not a baby, Ravi — she is a mad scientist with a God complex. But before anyone can explain that, the isobutane fire begets an isobutane explosion. A security wall comes down as the lab goes into lockdown mode, with Bobby, Chimney, Hen, and Ravi trapped inside.

So here’s the deal: The explosion could have aerosolized the virus, in which case opening the door would expose the public, and that would be very bad. (At one point, Buck says, “Screw protocols!” and I cannot get behind that.) When Athena shows up, Banting explains that it will take a day or so for the filtration system to recycle all the air in the lab. That would probably be fine, if not for two big problems — Hen has been crushed in the explosion and now has a collapsed lung that needs medical intervention within the next ten minutes, and Chim’s mask was blown off, so he’s been exposed to the virus. Meanwhile, Colonel John Hartman of U.S. Army Infectious Diseases has arrived to help get the 118 out of the lab by building a heavily filtered tunnel. (There is a more complicated explanation of this, but I just don’t have the capacity to break it down.) Hartman says it will take two hours, at best, before Bobby and his team are extracted.

Hen doesn’t have two hours, though. Chim is all set to do the emergency thoracostomy when Maddie (still patched in!) points out that if he’s sick, he could infect Hen during the procedure. Wearing a flimsy medical mask, he isolates himself and guides Bobby through the chest-tube placement, with an assist from Ravi. At one point, Bobby has to stick his finger in the incision he’s made and push through the muscle. “Cap, you’re gonna have to push really hard,” Chimney says, because 9-1-1 is nothing if not disgusting. Bobby’s able to insert the tube and Hen starts breathing again, but Chim is not doing so hot. He coughs blood into his mask and then his nose starts bleeding. “Hey, honey, not sure I’m gonna make it home for dinner,” he tells Maddie. “I think I picked up a little bug at the office.” If I ever start bleeding from multiple orifices, I can assure you I will not be so clever.

Outside, Roz lets slip that Banting has kept something from everyone, namely that Moira was doing gain-of-function research on the virus and has created a strain of CCHF that has a much, much faster incubation period than the three to seven days it usually does. The Army abandons its rescue efforts, with Hartman explaining that they’re going to have to let the 118 die in there. “We have a pandemic in a bottle, and I am not risking popping that top,” he says. Again, I get it! Naturally, Athena and Buck do not want to accept the deaths of their friends and loved ones, and thankfully, Roz has more relevant intel to share: Moira also made a cure! Hartman can’t approve using the single dose of antidote on Chimney, because if the virus gets out, they’ll need that to create a vaccine. (I know I’m not supposed to be on his side, but I’m sorry, he’s making a lot of sense.) However, Chimney is fading fast. Despite being threatened with terrorism charges, Ravi opens the freezer in the lab to retrieve the antidote — and discovers that it’s gone. Moira has absconded with her greatest work, of course, presumably for reasons beyond that she’s crazy. We’ll find out next week!

Call Log

• This is truly not the point, but they all sound so funny when they’re muffled in their hazmat suits. To be clear, that is not a reason to avoid PPE.

• I really could not get over how casual these first responders were about safety, though given how I saw many people behave at the height of COVID, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. Buck trying to skip the decontamination process made me want to shake him.

• It’s great to see Ravi more fully integrated into the team, and I hope that’s not just a temporary situation until Eddie (inevitably) returns. There’s room enough for both of them! Especially if someone dies in next week’s episode, which I’m only in moderate denial about.

• There are some other less urgent scenes this week, like Maddie and Chimney getting the wrong gender-reveal cake and confusing poor Jee-Yun, and Bobby and Athena working on construction of their new home. The deadly virus really pulls focus, sorry to these scenes.

• I think if you’ve had encephalitis in the relatively recent past, you should be excused from contracting CCHF. Just my opinion!